(UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION)
ENHANCED ACTIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE:
CHINA’ S INTENDED NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS[1]
Climate change is today’s common challenge faced by all humanity. Human activities since the Industrial Revolution, especially the accumulated carbon dioxide emissions from the intensive fossil fuels consumption of developed countries, have resulted in significantly increasing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, exacerbated climate change primarily characterized by global warming. Climate change has significant impacts on global natural ecosystems, causing temperature increase and sea level rise as well as more frequent extreme climate events, all of which pose a huge challenge to the survival and development of the human race.
Climate change is a global issue that requires the collaboration of the international community. For years, in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) have been working to enhance cooperation and achieved positive progress in the implementation of the Convention. To further enhance the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention, negotiations and consultations are now under way on enhanced actions beyond 2020, so as to reach an agreement at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention in Paris at the end of 2015. This will open up a new prospect for green and low-carbon development across the globe and promote sustainable development worldwide.
As a developing country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, China is among those countries that are most severely affected by the adverse impacts of climate change. China is currently in the process of rapid industrialization and urbanization, confronting with multiple challenges including economic development, poverty eradication, improvement of living standards, environmental protection and combating climate change. To act on climate change in terms of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing climate resilience, is not only driven by China’s domestic needs for sustainable development in ensuring its economic security, energy security, ecological security, food security as well as the safety of people’s life and property and to achieve sustainable development, but also driven by its sense of responsibility to fully engage in global governance, to forge a community of shared destiny for humankind and to promote common development for all human beings.
In accordance with relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, China hereby presents its enhanced actions and measures on climate change as its nationally determined contributions towards achieving the objective set out in Article 2 of the Convention, which represent its utmost efforts in addressing climate change, and contributes its views on the 2015 agreement negotiations with a view to making the Paris Conference a great success.
I. ENHANCED ACTIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
China attaches great importance to addressing climate change since long, making it a significant national strategy for its social and economic development and promoting green and low-carbon development as important component of the ecological civilization process. It has already taken a series of climate actions which represent a significant contribution to combating the global climate change. In 2009, China announced internationally that by 2020 it will lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40% to 45% from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to about 15% and increase the forested area by 40 million hectares and the forest stock volume by 1.3 billion cubic meters compared to the 2005 levels. In this connection, China has enacted and implemented the National Program on Climate Change, the Work Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period, the Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction for the 12th Five Year Plan Period, the 12th Five Year Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction, the 2014-2015 Action Plan for Energy Conservation, Emission Reduction and Low-Carbon Development, and the National Plan on Climate Change (2014-2020). China has accelerated the adjustment of its industry and energy structures and invested great efforts in improving energy efficiency, lowering carbon emissions and enhancing the ecosystem. China has initiated carbon emission trading pilots in 7 provinces and cities and low-carbon development pilots in 42 provinces and cities to explore a new mode of low-carbon development consistent with its prevailing national circumstances. By 2014 the following has been achieved:
• Carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP is 33.8% lower than the 2005 level;
• The share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption is 11.2%;
• The forested area and forest stock volume are increased respectively by 21.6 million hectares and 2.188 billion cubic meters compared to the 2005 levels;
• The installed capacity of hydro power is 300 gigawatts (2.57 times of that for 2005);
• The installed capacity of on-grid wind power is 95.81 gigawatts (90 times of that for 2005);
• The installed capacity of solar power is 28.05 gigawatts (400 times of that for 2005); and
• The installed capacity of nuclear power is 19.88 gigawatts (2.9 times of that for 2005).
China is accelerating the implementation of the National Strategy for Climate Adaptation, and improving its capacity to respond to extreme climatic events and making positive progress in key areas of climate change adaptation. Capacity building on combating climate change is further strengthened. Supports in terms of science and technology are further enhanced by implementing China’s Science and Technology Actions on Climate Change.
Looking into the future, China has defined as its strategic goals to complete the construction of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by 2020 and to create a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally developed and harmonious modern socialist country by the middle of this century. It has identified transforming the economic development pattern, constructing ecological civilization and holding to a green, low-carbon and recycled development path as its policy orientation. New industrialization, urbanization, informatization, agricultural modernization and greenisation will be promoted in a coordinated manner. Resource conservation and environmental protection have become the cardinal national policy, placing mitigation and adaptation on equal footing, promoting innovation in science and technology and putting in place the necessary management and regulatory mechanisms and systems. China will accelerate the transformation of energy production and consumption and continue to restructure its economy, optimize the energy mix, improve energy efficiency and increase its forest carbon sinks, with a view to efficiently mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. China is making efforts to embark on a sustainable development path that is in line with its national circumstances and leads to multiple wins in terms of economic development, social progress and combating climate change.
Based on its national circumstances, development stage, sustainable development strategy and international responsibility, China has nationally determined its actions by 2030 as follows:
• To achieve the peaking of carbon dioxide emissions around 2030 and making best efforts to peak early;
• To lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60% to 65% from the 2005 level;
• To increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20%; and
• To increase the forest stock volume by around 4.5 billion cubic meters on the 2005 level.
Moreover, China will continue to proactively adapt to climate change by enhancing mechanisms and capacities to effectively defend against climate change risks in key areas such as agriculture, forestry and water resources, as well as in cities, coastal and ecologically vulnerable areas and to progressively strengthen early warning and emergency response systems and disaster prevention and reduction mechanisms.
II. Policies and Measures to implement enhanced actions on Climate Change
A one-thousand-mile journey starts from the first step. To achieve the nationally determined action objectives on climate change by 2030, China needs, building on actions already taken, to make a sustained effort in further implementing enhanced policies and measures in areas such as regime building, production mode and consumption pattern, economic policy, science and technology innovation and international cooperation.
A. Implementing Proactive National Strategies on Climate Change
• To strengthen laws and regulations on climate change;
• To integrate climate-change-related objectives into the national economic and social development plans;
• To formulate China’s long-term strategy and roadmap for low-carbon development;
• To implement the National Program on Climate Change (2014-2020) and provincial climate programs; and
• To improve the overall administration of climate-change-related work and to make carbon-emission-related indicators play guiding role, by subdividing and implementing climate change targets and tasks, and improving the performance evaluation and accountability system on climate change and low-carbon development targets.
B. Improving Regional Strategies on Climate Change
• To implement regionalized climate change policies to help identify differentiated targets, tasks and approaches of climate change mitigation and adaptation for different development-planning zones;
• To strictly control greenhouse gas emissions in Urbanized Zones for Optimized Development;
• To enhance carbon intensity control in Urbanized Zones for Focused Development and to accelerate green and low-carbon transformation in old industrial bases and resource-based cities;
• To enhance the control of development intensity, to limit large-scale industrialization and urbanization, to strengthen the planning and construction of medium-and-small-sized towns, to encourage moderate concentration of population and to actively push forward the appropriate scale production and industrialization of agriculture in Major Agricultural Production Zones;
• To define ecological red lines, to formulate strict criteria for industrial development and to constrain the development of any new carbon intensive projects in Key Ecological Zones; and
• To introduce a withdrawal mechanism for those industries that do not match with functions of development-planning zones and to develop low-carbon industries in line with local conditions and circumstances.
C. Building Low-Carbon Energy System
• To control total coal consumption;
• To enhance the clean use of coal;
• To increase the share of concentrated and highly-efficient electricity generation from coal;
• To lower coal consumption of electricity generation of newly built coal-fired power plants to around 300 grams coal equivalent per kilowatt-hour;
• To expand the use of natural gas: by 2020, achieving more than 10% share of natural gas consumption in the primary energy consumption and making efforts to reach 30 billion cubic meters of coal-bed methane production;
• To proactively promote the development of hydro power, on the premise of ecological and environmental protection and inhabitant resettlement;
• To develop nuclear power in a safe and efficient manner;
• To scale up the development of wind power;
• To accelerate the development of solar power;
• To proactively develop geothermal energy, bio-energy and maritime energy;
• To achieve the installed capacity of wind power reaching 200 gigawatts, the installed capacity of solar power reaching around 100 gigawatts and the utilization of thermal energy reaching 50 million tons coal equivalent by 2020;
• To enhance the recovery and utilization of vent gas and oilfield-associated gas; and
• To scale up distributed energy and strengthen the construction of smart grid.
D. Building Energy Efficient and Low-Carbon Industrial System
• To embark on a new path of industrialization, developing a circular economy, optimizing the industrial structure, revising the guidance catalogue of the adjustment of industrial structure, strictly controlling the total expansion of industries with extensive energy consumption and emissions, accelerating the elimination of outdated production capacity and promoting the development of service industry and strategic emerging industries;
• To promote the share of value added from strategic emerging industries reaching 15% of the total GDP by 2020;
• To promote low-carbon development of industrial sectors, implementing Action Plan of Industries Addressing Climate Change (2012-2020) and formulating carbon emission control target and action plans in key industries;
• To research and formulate greenhouse gas emission standards for key industries;
• To effectively control emissions from key sectors including power, iron and steel, nonferrous metal, building materials and chemical industries through energy conservation and efficiency improvement;
• To strengthen the management of carbon emissions for new projects and to actively control greenhouse gas emissions originating from the industrial production process;
• To construct a recycling-based industrial system, promoting recycling restructure in industrial parks, increasing the recycling and utilization of renewable resources and improving the production rate of resource;
• To phase down the production and consumption of HCFC-22 for controlled uses, with its production to be reduced by 35% from the 2010 level by 2020, and by 67.5% by 2025 and to achieve effective control on emissions of HFC-23 by 2020;
• To promote the low-carbon development in agriculture, making efforts to achieve zero growth of fertilizer and pesticide utilization by 2020;
• To control methane emissions from rice fields and nitrous oxide emissions from farmland;
• To construct a recyclable agriculture system, promoting comprehensive utilization of straw, reutilization of agricultural and forestry wastes and comprehensive utilization of animal waste; and
• To promote low-carbon development of service industry, actively developing low-carbon business, tourism and foodservice and vigorously promoting service industries to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
E. Controlling Emissions from Building and Transportation Sectors
• To embark on a new pattern of urbanization, optimizing the urban system and space layout, integrating the low-carbon development concept in the entire process of urban planning, construction and management and promoting the urban form that integrates industries into cities;
• To enhance low-carbonized urbanization, improving energy efficiency of building and the quality of building construction, extending buildings’ life spans, intensifying energy conservation transformation for existing buildings, building energy-saving and low-carbon infrastructures, promoting the reutilization of building wastes and intensifying the recovery and utilization of methane from landfills;
• To accelerate the construction of low-carbon communities in both urban and rural areas, promoting the construction of green buildings and the application of renewable energy in buildings, improving low-carbon supporting facilities for equipping communities and exploring modes of low-carbon community operation and management;
• To promote the share of green buildings in newly built buildings of cities and towns reaching 50% by 2020;
• To develop a green and low-carbon transportation system, optimizing means of transportation, properly allocating public transport resources in cities, giving priority to the development of public transportation and encouraging the development and use of low-carbon and environment-friendly means of transport, such as new energy vehicle and vessel;